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Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Well I have been thrown in the deep end a little here. I don't mind it at all when the water is this perfect though!

On Monday the opportunity arose to head out to the Auster Emperor Penguin rookery to see how the chicks were doing before the sea ice is closed for vehicle travel. Of course I jumped at the chance and was appointed driving duties in one of our Hägglunds over snow vehicles. It was quite a big party heading out for the evening with 2x Häggs and 4x Honda Quads.

The trip itself is a 120km round trip to the east of Mawson along the sea ice and past the field hut at Macey Island. The Macey hut is interesting as it looks like it is constructed from an old railway carriage and its smack in the middle of an Adelie Penguin rookery!

Macey looking toward Auster

We left Macey and headed out to sea to find the Empies. They have moved over a kilometer from their original winter huddle and have now broken into 3 separate groups.

At the moment the Penguins are 'Creching' which is when the chicks stick together in groups and are looked after by a few adults while most of the parents head out to sea to feed. That is why the ratio of chicks to adults look wrong at the moment.

Pre-School

Hungry

And a nice big berg we found on the way home. The dot on the left is a quad bike about 3/4 the way between myself and the berg for scale.

The next day involved an early start in preparation of a trip to another Emperor rookery! This time to Taylor Glacier and one of the only Emperor rookeries to be found on dry land!

Taylor Glacier is to the west of Mawson and is a 220km (including sightseeing) round trip. Conveniently located close by is Proclamation Point which is the site where Sir Douglas Mawson first raised the British flag and claimed that gigantic slice of Antarctica.

The cache

A copy of the Proclamation

Here is a transcript of the proclamation if you cant read it from the photo:

Proclamation

In the name of His Majesty, King George the Fifth, King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions across the Seas, Emperor of India.

By Sir Douglas Mawson.

Whereas I have it in command from His Majesty King George the Fifth, to assert the Sovereign rights of His Majesty over British land discoveries met with in Antarctica. Now, therefore, I, Sir Douglas Mawson, do hereby proclaim and declare to all men that, from and after the date of these presents, the full sovereignty of the Territory which we have discovered and explored extending continuously from Adelie Land, westwards to MacRobertson Land being that part of the Antarctic Mainland and offlying Islands (Including amongst others, Drygalski Island, Hordern Island, David Island, Masson Island, Henderson Island, Haswell Islds and and Island in Longitude 103° 15' East shown on our charts) situate between meridia 138° and 60° East of Greenwich and south of Latitude 64° as far as the South Pole, vest in His Majesty King George the Fifth, His Heirs and Successors forever.
Given under my hand at this spot in MacRobertson Land on the eighteenth day of February 1931.

Douglas Mawson

BANZARE

(British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition)

This in particular has been a highlight for me and I feel very privileged to have step foot on such hallowed ground as this. To date there is only a couple of hundred people to ever visit this location.

My name in the history books

The view was pretty spectacular too!

Where Mawson raised the flag!

We stayed in Colbeck hut which has recently been renovated and relocated by the wintering team this year since it had a bad habit of getting buried under snow. The new location should stay snow-free and has a pretty amazing view.

Refurbished Colbeck

New location

View from Colbeck

As mentioned before the Taylor Emperor rookery is one of the only on dry land and is the site of Australia's first ASPA (Antarctic Specially Protected Area) which limits the impact of humans by only allowing one person at a time to enter the zone and only when in possession of a special permit. Unfortunately I wasn't the holder of that permit but we found that the Penguins had moved a large number of their chicks onto the sea ice which allowed a photo or two.

Under the glacier

Waiting for their parents

And that's about it for now, I have a feeling my next post might include mountains!!..

Sunday, 23 November 2014

The reason for my absence from my blogging duties is because I have moved 'home'. That's right, I have changed stations! On Wednesday the 19th of November (sorry about missing your birthday Mat) I flew from Davis Station to Mawson Station to spend the summer.

Mawson has always been a goal of mine and is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Australia’s Continental Antarctic stations for numerous good reasons.

Mawson can be described with many superlatives which you will hear in due course but it is also home to a few impressive records!:

It is the oldest continually manned Antarctic station on the continent and the site of the 1st ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) in 1954.

It is the first Antarctic station to have a portion of its power supplied by wind generation (at the moment over half of the power here is generated by the two wind turbines).

It is the last station to have a pack of Husky sled dogs, they were kennelled here until 1993.

It is the furthest station from Australia and also the smallest Australian station by population.

Despite all this Mawson talk I am going to finish off this brief blog with a few photos of the last month or so at one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Davis Station.

HDR of the Aurora Australis at anchorage on V1 resupply

Playing around with extension tubes and snowflakes (thanks uncle Tony!)